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Movie Reviews & TV Show ReviewsFri, 31 Jul 2015 00:19:01 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1Getting Back Into The Dating World Sucks For Keanu In ‘Knock Knock’ Trailerhttp://www.screenjunkies.com/video/getting-back-into-the-dating-world-sucks-for-keanu-in-knock-knock-trailer/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/getting-back-into-the-dating-world-sucks-for-keanu-in-knock-knock-trailer/#commentsTue, 26 May 2015 19:48:59 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?post_type=video&p=271616It seems like there's always a catch when two anonymous hotties show up at your house and have sex with you.

]]>As we saw in the teaser for Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves plays a good dad and husband who loves his family perhaps even more than he loves chocolate with sprinkles. But he puts all the chocolate and all the sprinkles in jeopardy when he allows two rain-drenched, horny strangers into his home. After he makes the innocent mistake of having sex with them in several rooms of the house, they turn the tables and make him pay for his transgressions in a not-sexy way. Chicks are weird, man.

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/getting-back-into-the-dating-world-sucks-for-keanu-in-knock-knock-trailer/feed/0Enjoy The Many Kills Of ‘John Wick’http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/enjoy-many-kills-john-wick/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/enjoy-many-kills-john-wick/#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 20:49:27 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?post_type=video&p=269992When John Wick gets upset, he does not use his words.

]]>If you want to enjoy the over-the-top action in John Wick but would like to skip all the talking and get right to the parts where Keanu Reeves kills over seventy bad guys, this is the video for you. It’s rated R for revenge killings and puppy murder.

]]>Normally, starring in an action film about a retired hitman avenging a murdered puppy wouldn’t revitalize one’s career but it’s worked wonders for Keanu Reeves. The John Wick star might be on board for a sequel to his surprise hit but, in the meantime, he’s lined up some solid roles. In addition to Eli Roth‘s Knock, Knock, he’s also joined the cast of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s The Neon Demon. For a director who doesn’t make his actors speak much, Keanu is the perfect choice.

Also starring Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone, Elle Fanning, Bella Heathcote, and Abbey Lee, The Neon Demon is rumored by What Culture to be an LA-based horror about a group of supermodels who resort to voodoo and cannibalism in order to hold on to their youthful looks. I knew it Cindy Crawford was lying! Melon juice from a secluded field in southern France, my foot.

]]>John Wick, the action film about a retired hitman pulled back in to the life when a two-bit thug kills his puppy, was a surprise hit thanks in equal parts to the awesome action sequences and Keanu Reeves’ performance as a man avenging his adorable, little dog. With a premise like that, it’s no surprise that directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch have started work on a sequel.

“We’re in development right now,” Stahelski said, adding, “We have ideas for days, and without blinking twice we know we can outdo the action from the original.”

But don’t worry. John Wick 2 won’t rely purely on action and will meet the exacting story standards held by the audience. Stahelski continues, “We want to make sure we have a story and a character that everybody loves and then we’ll dress it with action that we promise will be awesome.”

]]>While his wife is away, Keanu Reeves welcomes two attractive, young, rain-drenched models into his home. He then has sex with them even though he’s not supposed to. We can expect this movie to take a dark turn by virtue of this film being directed by Eli Roth, a guy who just loves dumping blood on actors. Knock Knock is currently at Sundance seeking a distributor to deliver to Roth’s fanbase of people who like gross things.

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/keanu-reeves-makes-exciting-new-friends-eli-roths-knock-knock-teaser/feed/0Keanu Reeves To Battle A Familiar Set Of Circumstances In ‘The Panopticon’http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-reeves-to-battle-a-familiar-set-of-circumstances-in-the-panopticon/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-reeves-to-battle-a-familiar-set-of-circumstances-in-the-panopticon/#commentsThu, 20 Nov 2014 17:27:39 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?p=267553With a title like 'Panopticon', you can just go ahead and start printing money right now.

]]>Poor Keanu Reeves. Every decade or so, he’s sitting in his greenish-lit office when he gets a message saying that he’s gotta run out and save the world. First it was The Matrix, and now it’s The Panopticon, directed by Tarsem Singh. The film will follow Reeves’ character as he gets a message from himself saying the world is going to end, and only he can save it.

Of course, he tries to save it, because he’s Keanu, and Keanu’s a trooper.

He then races against the clock (naturally) to figure out how he is supposed to save the world.

What’s a Panopticon, and why should we care? No idea. But movies with odd titles like this rarely do well. More often than not, the rubes buying a ticket will try to pronounce the title for ten seconds, then just give up and buy a ticket to that movie in which Kevin James plays a fishmonger who just needs love.

]]>While I applaud Keanu Reeves for being the first actor willing to stand up and star in an action movie about a retired hitman versus puppy murderers, his next role sounds like it could be a stretch. In Replicas, Reeves will fight science itself. Reeves is attached to play “a neuroscientist whose family is killed in a traffic accident and will stop at nothing to bring them back — pitting himself against a government-controlled laboratory, a police task force and the physical laws of science.” I’d be pretty concerned if I were quantum mechanics.

Recently, Reeves showed a self-aware side when he asked whether or not he’d be good at playing Doctor Strange. It was good while it lasted. (Variety)

]]>With casting for Marvel’s Doctor Strange still up in the air, the suggestion of Keanu Reeves for the part has started to gain some traction. Keanu Reeves himself, while open to the idea, has joined the chorus asking, “Would Keanu Reeves even be good at that?”

While promoting his puppy dog vengeance thriller John Wick, Collider asked Reeves about Doctor Strange. The actor wondered aloud if he’d be the right fit to play a doctor who is also a sorcerer. He went on to explain that he enjoys those films but is wary to sign such a long contract without really seeing the material. “From a practical standpoint, the idea of a longtime contract [like the famed long-term Marvel deals] is sort of ‘errr’ because you want to make sure the material is up to a certain level, like the good or great level,” said Johnny Mnemonic “I think with [superhero movies], you need the material, you need the director who you think can deliver a vision. You don’t want to do it for doing it, you know? You want to try and make sure it’s doing something.”

At any rate, the clock is ticking for Marvel who are planning the film for a 2016 release. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has acknowledged the film is “very, very important” to the studio as it will “open up a whole other side of storytelling for our movies.” They need to get someone in that role that we will laugh at the least.

]]>Keanu Reeves is ready to revisit his glory days. Not only did he tell reporters he’d be open to starring in Speed 3, but he’s also been teasing a third Bill & Ted film for some time. Now, his most excellent companion, Alex Winter, has given an update about the would-be return to San Dimas. He tells Yahoo:

“[Bill & Ted] will be 40-something and it’s all about Bill and Ted grown up, or not grown up,” Winter tells us. “It’s really sweet and really f—-ing funny.

“But it’s a Bill & Ted movie, that’s what it is. It’s for the fans of Bill & Ted. It fits very neatly in the [series]. It’s not going to feel like a reboot. The conceit is really funny: What if you’re middle-aged, haven’t really grown up and you’re supposed to have saved the world and maybe, just maybe, you kinda haven’t?”

“There’s many versions of ourselves in this movie,” he continues. “[It’s] answering the question: ‘What happened to these guys?’ They’re supposed to have done all this stuff, they weren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree, what happened 20 years later? To answer that question in a comedic way felt rich with possibility.”

He also cautions that traction has been slow. It’s difficult to get a movie made on the business side of things and he wishes that they could have done this work in secret. With the prospect of another Bill & Ted sequel out in the open, it drags the fans along and adds the pressure of having their every move watched. While the movie is coming, we don’t know exactly when. There’s no way our kids are going to understand it.

]]>In John Wick, Keanu Reeves is harmlessly enjoying his retirement from contract killing by driving a muscle car and hanging out with a cute little puppy when trouble comes looking for him. You see, his muscle car is so impressive that Alfie Allen beats him up and kills his puppy before stealing the car from him. We can all agree that the puppy thing was unnecessary. Puppy murder is never okay despite what Allen may have learned from Game of Thrones.

Now, he’s got the world’s most dangerous hitman on his back and we have an explosive action film about a man avenging the death of a puppy. It’s honestly come to that. That’s where we are now. A plotline that Hollywood hasn’t touched on since the security guard from Mannequin. I hope this is a runaway hit and it persuades Jason Statham to star in a movie about puppy mills. It could be called The Mill and have the tagline: Every dog has his day. It writes itself.

]]>In case you were sitting around this Christmas Eve, asking yourself, “Hey, I wonder what Keanu Reeves’ opinion on joining a hypothetical Point Break remake!” you now have your answer.

He’s not a fan. He doesn’t want to do it. It’s not “his place.”

He did say that a remake sounded “exciting,” which we all know is a big lie, and that it’s not exciting. You know what’s exciting? Watching the original. That’s exciting. Remakes of Robocop and Total Recall, two popular action films from the Point Break era, have both fallen a little flat recently, in case you needed empirical evidence to support what we all know you’re thinking.

Sadly, it’s unknown whether any of these developments led Keanu to sit on a bench and eat a sandwich in solitude.

While the idea of taking a beloved property and giving it a modern context is hardly new, it would appear that the producers of 47 Ronin hedged that concept against a number of other bold moves, including the bankability of the aging (but awesome and appropriate) Keanu Reeves, and giving first-time director Carl Rinsch a $170 million budget and the keys to the castle.

It’s far from definitive, but this trailer looks as though those risks may have paid off from a product standpoint. Now it’s up to those boring suits at the studio to find a market for this promising film.

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/keanu-reeves-knower-of-kung-fu-kicks-and-punches-in-47-ronin-trailer/feed/0‘The Matrix’ As Retold By A Guy’s Momhttp://www.screenjunkies.com/video/the-matrix-as-retold-by-a-guys-mom/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/the-matrix-as-retold-by-a-guys-mom/#commentsFri, 03 May 2013 20:30:46 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?post_type=video&p=254711Much better than the sequels!

]]>Back-stabbing revenge, gut-wrenching suspense and putting a bullet in a trusted confidant: all in a day’s work for an undercover badass. From Serpico to Donnie Brasco, the hallmarks of the covert hero require deep emotional commitment, a versatile wardrobe and the ability to blend in with questionable fortitude. That ability will come in handy for Dwayne Johnson’s character in the upcoming action-thriller Snitch. In the film, Johnson plays a father who is forced to infiltrate a drug cartel in order to clear the name of his wrongly convicted son. And as with the other undercover badasses on this list, one wrong move could cost him his life.

In celebration of the release of Summit Entertainment’s crime thriller Snitch, opening in theaters February 22nd, we’re proud to bring you seven of the greatest undercover badasses in movie history.

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed

By the time the American remake of Infernal Affairs rolled around, DiCaprio was already widely-celebrated for his skills; but it wasn’t until audiences saw him doing push-ups between prison bunks that he carved out his first proper badass. Given the circumstances, it could have been easy for any actor to overplay the role of William Costigan, but DiCaprio brings a level of grace and sadness to level off the character’s grit and ferocity. Even more badass: DiCaprio actively declined campaigning for any awards for Best Supporting Actor that year as to avoid stepping on the toes of his co-stars.

Johnny Depp, Donnie Brasco

Getting in “too deep” is a common theme in many undercover films. After all, putting yourself at risk is what going undercover is all about. But what happens when you form a legitimate friendship with the men you’re supposed to be infiltrating. Things quickly get complicated for Donnie Brasco when he realizes that doing his job will most likely result in his friend’s death.

Toshiro Mifune, The Bad Sleep Well

Mifune’s performance as Koichi Nishi is a rarity in that it doesn’t employ the slam-bang tactics of many of his cohorts seen on this list. His stoic nerd slowly unveils the vengeance of a son scorned by one of the most powerful corporations in Japan through tactics of seduction, espionage and psychological torture. Mifune played numerous lively punkers in his lifetime, particularly in the realm of samurai lore, but this character seethes in his rage, striking only after his prey is at the brink of madness. Case in point: Nishi corners one of his targets on the window ledge from which his father died, calming the man down by offering whiskey that he later reveals is “poisoned”. The mark collapses, driven insane by the ordeal. Nasty!

Keanu Reeves, Point Break

This is simple story about a former Ohio State quarterback named Johnny Utah. For an F-!B-!I!-Agent!, Johnny maintains the most suspicious bromance with Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi this side of “Brokeback Mountain”. He allows his bleach-blonde nemesis to escape an aqueduct face-off, jump out of an airplane and eventually surf himself to death. At various points in the film, Bodhi’s potency in performing extreme sports counteracts the hobbling ethics of Reeves’ lawman. Johnny, like, totally buries his heart at wounded knee.

Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects

Have you ever seen Kevin Spacey try to act like a badass? It doesn’t work. But Spacey as a schlepp? That’s Oscar gold. The writing/directing on “Suspects” lay formidable groundwork for Spacey to perform as the keystone for an impeccably oddball cast. His bumbling Verbal Kint acts as a tender foil to a constant stream of roughneck freakouts. With little more than his wits, this badass knows that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing Chazz Palmenteri that he didn’t exist.

Chevy Chase, Fletch

Light years ahead of the Twitter-quip generation, Chase is at the peak of his powers, dishing out maximum smarm before turding up his career with JTT movies. What makes this role fairly badass is that it is one of the last of a dying breed: that of the snoopy, investigative newspaper reporter. What makes it particularly badass is that Chase has a ball conjuring up characters with names like Dr. Rosenpenis, Dr. Babar and Mr. Poon. The actor has gone on record as saying this was his favorite role, given that director Michael Ritchie often took multiple takes and allowed Chase to riff with whatever came off the top of his dome.

Nicolas Cage, Face/Off

“Castor Troy” is a pretty distinct – if not altogether awful – name. Despite this and other cringe-worthy moments that face-swipe to show affection, Nic Cage keeps John Woo’s ‘97 hit from teetering into cornball territory. Cage’s Castor Troy is the kind of guy who can talk an undercover agent into sucking his tongue. He poses as a priest so he can plant a dirty bomb and goose choir members. He switches sunglasses for no reason. And he delivers a more badass John Travolta impersonation than Dana Carvey.

]]>Feeling pressure to get into production before he’s age-appropriate for the Expendables franchise, Keanu Reeves is eager to get filming on a third Bill & Ted movie. Although rumors have swirled about the film for some time, there was never any concrete info released. While the film may not have funding yet, thanks to an interview Reeves did with GQ, we at least know what adventure and/or journey they will take us on this time.

The new script, from creators Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, finds Bill and Ted having been “crushed by the responsibility of having to write the greatest song ever written and to change the world. And they haven’t done it.”

“So everybody is kind of like: ‘Where is the song?’ The guys have just drifted off into esoterica and lost their rock.”

“We go on this expedition, go into the future to find out if we wrote the song, and one future ‘us’ refuses to tell us, and another future ‘us’ blames us for their lives because we didn’t write the song, so they’re living this terrible life,” Reeves said. “In one version we’re in jail; in another we’re at some kind of highway motel and they hate us.”

Makes sense seeing as “Trapped in the Closet” already exists as the greatest song ever written.

]]>Mmmm-yeah. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure. Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. Ahh, I’m also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too…

As co-star Keanu Reeves had said in an interview a while back, the script is done, but the project hasn’t yet gotten the go-ahead, so we’re stuck in a state of limbo, not unlike Bill and Ted were in their Bogues Journey. It‘s been 21 years since the last Bill and Tedfilm, so where the writers decided to pick this one up is anyone’s guess. Fortunately, Bill and Ted seems to be a pretty forgiving franchise when it comes to leaps of logic, so whether or not the two actors continue to play high school version of themselves or middle-age men is pretty much irrelevant.

The important thing is that they conduct another presentation to the students of San Dimas and really dive into Bill’s Oedipal complex.

]]>The Matrix movies have now been around long enough to qualify as “classics,” whether you liked the sequels or not. As such, there are many of us “enthusiasts” that have sat and watched them enough times to notice that while Larry and Andy Wachowski may know a thing or two about framing Jesus as a Kung-Fu master who likes 9 millimeters, they apparently knew shit about computers when they wrote the ground-breaking series. Here is a list of technologies that existed when the Matrix movies were written and that my almost 10 years of experience in IT tells me would have buttoned up the series in no time.

Hardened Electronics

I am going to start off by stepping out of the Matrix world for a second to explore something equally as iconic; James Bond. I am going to guess that if you have not been living off your own excrement for the past 20 years, you have at least a passing knowledge of the movie Goldeneye. If you do, you might remember part of the plot involved a pre-“Jean Grey” Famke Jansen stealing a helicopter using her thighs. The whole reason she and the other villains took it was because it was “hardened”, meaning it was built with electronics that could shrug off the radiation ionization caused by a sudden pulse of electromagnetism… otherwise known as an “EMP”, the human resistance’s sole weapon against the machines in the real world. I mention this because Goldeneye came out years before the first Matrix movie, and the ideas behind that whole thing have been around since the Cold War was actually a thing, meaning that the machines would probably A) have a working knowledge of hardening and B) would probably work that shit into every last piece of hardware they built. Think about it, you have access to technology that makes you essentially impervious to your enemy, why not use it?

Packet Sniffers

For anyone who has ever set up a network, home or otherwise, we all know security is a big deal. Even if you just know that “they” can sneak around your network if you don’t secure it, you are at least somewhat aware of the fact that there are programs out there that let people look at information passing from computer to computer and analyze it. Given the right kind of thinking and hardware, they can pull your personal information right out of thin air, right? Like maybe a giant godamn hovercraft broadcasting information into your network? The basic idea is that the machines likely could have looked at the data passing between these ships and their own network to find out who is poking around in their system and kill them. Or, you know, use a freaking firewall.

]]>A 20-year-old woman came forward today with claims that Justin Bieber nailed her backstage at one of his concerts and left her with child. Though the singer’s camp (and lack of pubes) deny his involvement in passing her his seed, you can’t help but wonder. Bieber‘s team said in a statement, “While we haven’t yet seen the lawsuit, it’s sad that someone would fabricate malicious, defamatory and demonstrably false claims.” Which is pretty much their stock response whenever the kid gets caught being an asshole. So again, you have to wonder.

If history is any indicator, this could go either way. Hollywood stars have always been the subject of paternity suits, whether ludicrous or with merit. No one will really know if Bieber is the dad until he submits for DNA testing. And no using hypnosis to change the results, Justin. That’s cheating.

Mel Gibson

Back before he morphed into a sputtering, hate-fueled mess, there were many who were happy to align themselves with Mel Gibson. In 2006, a 29-year-old woman came forward claiming to be his love-child, saying that years earlier (30 years, I would guess) Mel had picked up her hitchhiking mother and then gave her more than just a lift. Gibson has not submitted for DNA testing.

Eddie Murphy

After dating Spice Girl Mel B., Eddie Murphy was skeptical when she told him that she was pregnant with his child. He commented, “I don’t know whose child that is until it comes out and has a blood test.” Murphy then refused to take a paternity test until the courts got involved. The results proved he is the father of their little girl. However, he has made no attempts to be in her life. Mel B. later went on to marry Stephen Belafonte, a celebrity mooch who is wanted in New Jersey for killing a duck with a brick.

Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony was accused of fathering a child with a Miami waitress while still married to his first wife. However, test results proved that he is not the dad. Despite this fact, he should probably not go back to that restaurant. Lord only knows what will end up in his food.

]]>Hot on the heels of Straw Dogs Footloose and A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hollywood is back to doing what it does best — taking good movies and ruining them with a remake. We don’t care much when it’s something that wasn’t very good to begin with (Arthur), or something so patently stupid that we don’t even have to take it seriously (Romancing the Stone), but when you start messing with our favorites like They Live and Planet of the Apes, we’ve got a broken bottle and a bad attitude. Now, proving that Hollywood is totally out of ideas and has no respect for the dead, some genius is talking about remaking

Can we just start by talking about Swayze? This cigarette-chomping centerpiece of Point Break is one of few actors to successfully unite the roles of heartthrob and legit bad ass. The Point Break remake was originally a sequel, something we can be cautiously optimistic about. Apparently Warner Bros. couldn’t wait until his corpse was cold to start violating it. It doesn’t matter who you get, WB — they won’t be Swayze.

It’s Already Licensed

They haven’t just made plans for a film. Warner Bros. has already licensed the film for television and games. Get ready for a sub-par USA Network weekly starring Matthew Lillard and Jamie Kennedy and an MMORPG where you can decide which ex-president you want to be.

Ex-Presidents

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the idea of bank robbers in Bill Clinton and George (H.)W. Bush masks is… well, stupid. Part of the charm of the original is the sheer Americana of the masks. Nixon, Reagan and Johnson are defining men of an era. While this is also true of Clinton and Bush the younger, it’s hard to see a man in a Bubba mask being anything other than comical, even when he’s holding a gun in your face.

]]>20 years is the amount of time we were able to spend enjoying Point Break and it’s dumb-but-not-really action movie legacy. Alcon Entertainment will be updating the 1991 film, setting in the more general world of “extreme sports” rather than surfing.

Instead of making a joke here, I’m just going to go on record as saying this is a very bad idea.

The scribe behind Salt, Kurt Wimmer, will be putting together a film that incorporates a bunch of contemporary bullshit into a movie that was just fine to begin with. Whoever is behind this clearly holds nothing sacred and will put together a film that falls way short of the original, but I would like to chip in my two cents to make sure the remake is as ephemeral and awful as possible.

In closing, I leave you with this quote from producer Michael DeLuca. Feel free to read it then go take a shower: “Point Break wasn’t just a film, it was a Zen meditation on testosterone fueled action and manhood in the late 20th century and we hope to create the same for the young 21st!”

]]>Forty-seven years ago today, a bouncing baby boy with the ability to time-travel, surf, defuse bombs, bend the fabric of the universe, and eat while crying was born. The miracle child I speak of is, of course, Keanu Reeves. The actor has brought so many characters to life, and sometimes it seems that he’s done so without even really trying. Here are Keanu Reeves‘ 5 most iconic roles.

If you wrote off Ted Logan and his Wyld Stallyns bandmate Bill S. Preston, Esquire, as a couple of dumb teens whose band would never amount to anything, you would be half right. Though they aren’t the sharpest kids in San Dimas, they are the most important as it is their music that will go on to become the core of the future’s Utopian society. Much in the same way that Nickelback will be man’s undoing. This high-concept sci-fi comedy wasn’t supposed to be that big of a deal, however, audiences loved it and it spawned an animated series, a sequel (with another on the way), and vaulted Keanu to heartthrob status. As for co-star Alex Winters, we always appreciated him for his mind.

Johnny Utah – Point Break

Reeves toed the water of action films with Kathryn Bigelow‘s Point Break. His intuition paid off as the film was a massive success thanks to his pairing with Patrick Swayze. We’d like to think that Gary Busey had a little bit to do with it too, but he probably was really more of a liability. I can’t believe they allowed him on a set with firearms and aerial stunts.

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/happy-birthday-neo-the-5-iconic-keanu-reeves-roles/feed/0billandted460point-breakAlbert Hughes Splits From ‘Akira’, But Sticks With Warner Broshttp://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/albert-hughes-splits-from-akira-but-sticks-with-warner-bros/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/albert-hughes-splits-from-akira-but-sticks-with-warner-bros/#commentsThu, 26 May 2011 19:53:23 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?p=213747It's looks like 'Menace II Society' and 'Akira' won't have the same director after all.

Despite these setbacks, the film is still being fasttracked, so expect the studio to find another helmer as soon as possible. Also expect the studio to match Hughes to another project in short order. Sounds like both the studio and director bounce back nicely, but what of the film?

Not much is known about the ever-evolving Akira, as producers changed both the direction of the film and the budget, opting to go with Reeves instead of a younger, less-proven star. While the script may be firm, it would appear that every other aspect of the project is back to square one. Not exactly the direction you want to be traveling in on a fasttracked production.

]]>Keanu Reeves has decided that he doesn’t need Akira in his life, having passed on the project. While he seemed like an inspired choice to play the gang leader Kaneda, he was two decades older than some of the other candidates. That said, the decision to leave was Reeves’, so producers must have been willing to overlook the age discrepancy for his box-office draw and blockbuster movie experience.

Warner Bros. has insisted that Keanu’s decision hasn’t sidetracked production, as it’s in development and has yet to be greenlit. So don’t worry about this event offsetting progress on the film – they haven’t made any yet. Way to cover your ass, WB. (Coming Soon)

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-walks-away-from-akira-possibly-to-eat-a-sandwich-alone-on-a-bench/feed/4Keanu Reeves In Talks To Lead An Asian Gang In ‘Akira’http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-reeves-in-talks-to-lead-an-asian-gang-in-akira/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-reeves-in-talks-to-lead-an-asian-gang-in-akira/#commentsFri, 06 May 2011 18:55:05 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?p=210969He's already got a leg up on the other candidates. He knows kung-fu.

While the talks aren’t far along, Reeves has demonstrated he can carry a big-budget franchise with The Matrix trilogy, so his involvement could give the film weight enough to find another A-lister for the role of Tetsuo, Kaneda’s best friend. Keanu is now wrapping up the samurai film 47 Ronin, so perhaps the studio wanted to catch him while he was still in a Japanese state of mind. Because once those sword skills fade, they’re gone for good. (THR)

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-reeves-in-talks-to-lead-an-asian-gang-in-akira/feed/2Review: ‘Henry’s Crime’http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-review/review-henrys-crime/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-review/review-henrys-crime/#commentsFri, 15 Apr 2011 23:24:59 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?p=207392I don’t think it’s great or memorable, but as one of the unorthodox releases this weekend, it may interest some of you.

Henry’s Crime is one of those quirky indie movies. It probably ranks on the higher end of that scale, just by the A-list cast and cinematic production value. I don’t think it’s great or memorable, but as one of the unorthodox releases this weekend, it may interest some of you.

Henry Torne (Keanu Reeves) gets tricked into driving getaway for a bank robbery, and he’s the one who does the time for it. When he’s free, he decides he’d like to rob the bank for real, since he already went to jail for not robbing it. He gets his prison buddy Max (James Caan) out to assist him.

The hook is that there’s a tunnel leading from the local theater to the bank vault, from Prohibition era. So Henry strikes up a relationship with local actress Julie (Vera Farmiga) and ultimately ends up playing a role in their production of “The Cherry Orchard.” Isn’t that quirky? A bank heist AND a local theater production. Oh, the hilarity.

I’ve always been a Keanu defender. You would not have loved The Matrix so much if he weren’t playing it like a kid discovering his first Nintendo. Henry’s Crime allows him to be more understated than ever, because he’s a stifled sad sack. It’s the bland guy coming to life, a formula as trite in the indie world as the rom-com is in mainstream movies.

Max and Henry case the bank and the theater while Henry romances Julie. They have some technical problems to figure out, like dealing with the dirt from the tunnel. Along the way, more characters horn in on their scam. Ultimately Henry is torn between acting and going through with the plan.

It’s so mellow, it’s hard to get excited about Henry’s Crime, but maybe you want to see James Caan as another badass mastermind, or Reeves stretching from stoic leading men. There’s actually a good production of “The Cherry Orchard” in there, until Julie and Henr break character to deal with their actual relationship. Director Malcolm Venville makes the film look professional, so it will certainly stand out in an arthouse theater surrounded by first time foreign features.

]]>MGM wasn’t kidding around when they decided to make a reboot on Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic, Robocop. They’ve attached big-name directors like Darren Aronofsky (who’s no longer doing it), and now they’re apparently looking at some pretty surprising names to play the quasi-superhero. Surprising because they’re such big names, that is. Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Keanu Reeves are all reportedly being approached to play Alex Murphy, who in a tragic series of events, is transformed into Robocop. Murphy, of course, was played by at unknown at the time, Peter Weller, but it looks like the studio is going in a different direction this time around.

Of course, whether they actually GET anymore famous to play Robocop is another matter entirely, given that the part requires you to basically hide every part of your face except your chin for the bulk of the movie. I guess Tom Cruise has kind of a recognizable chin, but the others? Couldn’t pick ‘em out of a chin line-up. And Depp would probably base his Robocop on Freddy Mercury or something. (MovieHole)

]]>http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/mgm-wants-hollywoods-most-famous-chins-for-robocop-reboot/feed/13robocop23Keanu Gives Up ’47 Ronin’ Details. Spoiler Alert: There’s Sword Fighting.http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-gives-up-47-ronin-details-spoiler-alert-theres-sword-fighting/
http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/keanu-gives-up-47-ronin-details-spoiler-alert-theres-sword-fighting/#commentsTue, 05 Apr 2011 22:07:10 +0000http://www.screenjunkies.com/?p=205482I'm looking forward to the scene where he cuts off a guy's leg and then pretends to play it like a guitar.

]]>In addition to maybe getting our hopes up for a Bill and Ted sequel, Keanu Reeves also took some time to talk about 47 Ronin. We’ll start with the romance angles for the ladies, but stick around guys cuz there’s some swords stuff too.

“I call it a story of revenge and impossible love. The samurai become outcast and decide to enact revenge on the person who is responsible for the death of their lord.”

Reeves plays “an outsider, a kind of half-breed with a mysterious past, who’s in love with the princess and she’s in love with me, but we can’t be together.”

Now, swords.

“[I] just finished a sword fight a couple of weeks ago with a great actor named Hiroyuki Sanada. He’s fantastic.”

He IS fantastic. You probably know him best from swor fighting with Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 3 or beating the crap out of Jack and Sayid on the final season of “Lost.” What? I didn’t say he was fantastic at selecting projects. (MTV)

]]>Alex Winters must be a really convincing guy. The mightier half of the Bill and Ted duo (Keanu) recently opened up to MTV about a Bill and Ted 3, which writers should have done in about six weeks or so. By “writers” I mean the original writing team that blessed us with both Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey. The fact that they insist that they are six weeks away from a draft leads me to believe that they haven’t started yet, as no Bill and Ted saga, unless it’s tied in with a Dan Brown story, could take six weeks to write.

Keanu conveys to MTV, from the last he’s heard, that the third installment will pick up with Bill and Ted still attempting to write a song that saves the world. Which apparently takes about 20 years. And there’s some time travel, too.

You know what? Let’s not overanalyze this. It’s a Bill and Ted movie, and it’s going to be pretty damn cool if all the pieces fall into place.